I’m neither a Catholic nor a Beatles fan, (the band’s heyday years were a few decades before my time), but I’m very much appreciative of the affect they’ve had on pop music and rock.
However the peculiar timing of this particular announcement doesn’t appear to have escaped critics of the church. From the original article…
So is this simply an attempt to deflect recently reignited criticism regarding the pedophilia scandals? It seems long overdue to me personally, but the motivations also seem terribly transparent.
So, apparently they *are *bigger than Jesus…
The timing on this might seem ‘suspicious’, but I doubt that plays into this at all. The Vatican is not known for being quick-acting when it comes to changing their stance on matters, whether large or small.
If there is anything more to this story than “they finally got around to admitting they were wrong”, I think its a matter of “let’s try to look a little hip, and just a bit less like a bunch of stodgy old Italian guys (and a German)” than “oh shit, we’d better talk about rock and roll so that people will forget about all of these sex abuse scandals”.
Meh, it wasn’t until like 1995 that the Southern Baptist Convention officially declared their opposition to slavery. Religious institutions are not quick to switch gears.
I’m glad it didn’t take them a hundred years to realize that the Beatles weren’t the threat to civilization that they thought they were.
Now here’s to hoping they don’t take another hundred to realize pedophile priests need to be defrocked and removed rather than relocated to a different parish.
They’re getting better. It only took them 41 years to forgive the Beatles. It took them 359 years to say the same thing about Galileo. And he could carry a tune in a bucket!
Is this an official statement by the Vatican or just some commentary in the Vatican newspaper? If The Washington Post gives their next rerelease a bad review does that mean Barack Obama hates them? Seriously, you’re trusting the Daily Mail on this? Until it’s in the Sun, color me sceptical.
This just seems surreal, to me. Had the Vatican made an official statement against them that they’re now rescinding? Why are the Beatles even a topic of discussion at all?
Do the media just not have anything better to write about?
This isn’t even the FIRST time the Vatican “forgave” the Beatles. They figured out YEARS ago that John Lennon was just a wiseass high school dropout, rather than genuinely evil.
The comparison of Obama and the Washington Post is way off (the Vatican owns the paper, and the White House doesn’t own the Post), but I think you’re right. It’s the official Vatican newspaper but this is not a doctrinal statement. It’s the newspaper’s opinion. Here’s a more nuanced article about it.
